Psychiatric Studies, by C. G. Jung. Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Collected Works, Vol. 1. Bollingen Series 20. New York,  Pantheon, $3.75; London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957. pp.  269. 255.

The earliest productions of men of genius are apt to be heavy going. That infinite capacity for taking pains, which has been cited as one of the chief characteristics of genius itself, is often most in evidence at this stage in the writer's development in the form of an almost obsessional preoccupation with detail. The broad sweep and developed insight will come later; and with them will come a mastery of detail and a grasp of proportion which at the beginning may elude even the most gifted author, and indeed may continue to elude all but the most gifted, in their attack upon problems at once so difficult, challenging, and at first seemingly nebulous as those of psychopathology. So it is that this first volume of the collected works of the master, containing fittingly his earliest studies in descriptive psychiatry, is one which will be read more for its historical interest than for the lasting value of its scientific contribution. Nevertheless, the light which it sheds upon the way in which Jung began to tackle the problems of his chosen career is fascinating, and approaches in interest, if not in value, the light which he was later to shed upon the wide infinity and complexity of human personality, thought, and behaviour.

The volume opens with Jung's first published work, his dissertation for